Grain Exports From Rouen Slide 22% to Four-Month Low on Wheat

Grain exports from the French port of Rouen, Europe’s biggest cereal-shipping hub, fell 22 percent in the latest week to a four-month low as the smallest amount of wheat was shipped since at least August 2010.

Cargoes slid to 31,368 metric tons between June 28 and July 4 from 39,980 tons a week earlier, the Seine River port wrote in an e-mailed report today. That included 11,545 tons of soft wheat, less than a third of the prior week’s 35,816 tons.

Grain loadings fell to the lowest since the seven days through Feb. 22. Ivory Coast was the main destination with 10,000 tons of soft wheat, followed by the U.K. with 4,400 tons of barley and 3,150 tons of corn.

Rouen accounted for 41 percent of France’s grain exports by sea in 2010-11, ahead of La Pallice on the Bay of Biscay and Dunkirk on the North Sea, which shipped out 17 percent and 11 percent respectively, according to port figures.

Rouen grain loadings by destination, in metric tons:

                June 28-July 4
Soft wheat
Ivory Coast         10,000
Denmark              1,545

Malting barley
U.K.                 4,400
Belgium              4,300
Russia               3,300
Netherlands          3,023

Corn
U.K.                 3,150
Denmark              1,650

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net